Rantz!

XP Tips

2008-02-15T14:03:00.003-05:00

Here are some tips to help with speeding up XP and download speeds, most of these tips are for XP pro!
First lets stop programs from starting up that we don't need!

1. In Windows XP, go to Start > Run

2. Type MSCONFIG in the "Open:" box and then either press enter on your keyboard or click on the OK button.

3. This launches Microsoft's System Configuration Utility. Click on the Startup tab (the tab at the far right).

****Also in the BOOT.INI tab there is a check box to boot the computer in "safe mode" you can check and un-check this box as an alternative to boot computer in safe mode.

4. This takes you to a page with a list of "startup items." Startup items are programs that are automatically loaded every time you turn on your computer. Some startup programs are absolutely necessary, others are simply a waste of RAM.

In Windows XP, all of Windows' essential programs are loaded through something called "Windows Services." This means that most of the startup items you see in XP are completely optional and can be turned off (uncheck box) However, a good rule of thumb is to disable only those programs that you recognize and don't need to have running all the time, ( like adobe, or itunes, printer software, nero, reader, ect...) When in doubt, leave it on.

Now reboot. When computer reboots you will get a pop-up, this basiclly says that you made changes and do you want a reminder, check the box in the lower left corner and then ok.

SERVICES!Unnecessary services don't just subject you to security risk. They also slow down the operation of your computer. So, don't get lazy here and think you can just deal with the infections later. Go ahead and turn that junk off and recapture your system from these resource hogs. You get to services by going to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, then Services. You should see a long list of services, some running and some dormant. Use this checklist to help determine which services you can live without.

If you don't know how to find Windows Services in Windows XP, click on Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, and Services. Below is a simple step by step to finding and changing your services on Windows XP. Keep in mind that your view settings may make your's appear slightly different, but will be the same basic path.

Click on start, then click on Control Panel.

In Control Panel, click on Administrative Tools

In Administrative Tools, click on Services.

Choose the service you wish to modify.

Once you select the service you wish to modify, you have several buttons to turn the service off immediately, drop down choices to disable a service, make it autmatic, or make it manual.

Depending on your network setup, printer, ect.. will determine on what services to turn off, some "general" safe services you can turn off are

Alerter - ClipBook - Messenger - Remote desktop help session - Remote registry - Telnet

again if you dont have a network then you can turn network stuff off, same with printer, I never print from my laptop, so printing services are off!

How to change QoS reservable bandwidth using GPEDIT.MSC Before I begin: Let me explain you what we are going to do. We are going to change QoS parameter from default 20% to 10%. You can change it to any number you like. Remember if the network card has a specific limit set on it in registry, this would have no impact on it.

Step 1: Log on as Administrator.
Step 2: Go to START-RUN and enter GPEDIT.MSC (alternatively you can go into C:\WINDOWS\system32 and click on gpedit.msc microsoft common console document.
Step 3: Navigate to Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuraton -> Administrative Templates -> Network -> QoS Packet Scheduler. Once there screen should some thing like as shown in the snapshot below.

Step 4: Look int the right pane and select Limit reservable bandwith. You would see a description that says default limits are 20% if not configured. If this is first time you have used GPEDIT, yours is not configured
Step 5: Double click on Limit reservable bandwidth. Following window would pop up. It is in this screen that you can enabled the limits and set to a number you want. I set the number to 10% but again you can set it to 0 or whatever you wish..

Click Apply, Ok, Now were done! restart computer!

***Remember to keep antivirus up to date, and always run antivirus in safe mode, you can press F8 while computer is booting or through the BOOT.INI tab!

Anti-virus Trick!

2008-02-12T15:31:00.001-05:00

A slick trick against e-mail viruses - As you may know, when/if a worm virus gets into your computer it heads straight for your email address book and sends itself to everyone in there, thus infecting all your friends and associates,
This trick won't keep the virus from getting into your computer, but it will stop it from using your address book to spread it further, and it will alert you to the act that the worm has gotten into your system.
Here' what to do:

First: Open your address book and click on "new contact" or "new person" just as you would do if you were adding a new friend to your list of email addresses.

Second: In the window where you would type your friends FIRST name, type in
!000 (that's an exclamation mark followed by 3 zeros). In the window below where it prompts you to enter the new email address, type in WormAlert.
Third: Then complete everything by clicking add, enter, OK, etc
Now, here's what you've done and why it works: the "name" !000 will be placed sat the top of your email address book as entry #1. This will be where the worm will start in an effort to send itself to all your friends. But when it tries to send itself to !000, it will be undeliverable because of the phoney email address you entered (WormAlert). if the first attempt fails (which it will because of the phoney address), the worm goes no further and your friends will not be affected.
Here's the second great advantage of this method. If an email cannot be delivered, you will be notified of this in your Inbox almost immediately.
Hence, if you ever get an email telling you that an email addressed to WormAlert could not be delivered, you know right away that you have the worm virus in your system. You can then take steps to get rid of it.
If everbody you know does this, then you need't ever worry about opening mail from friends. Pass this on to your friends.

Linux!

2008-01-20T01:19:00.000-05:00

One day I decided to teach myself Linux. Why? Windows is unsafe! not to mention-- worms, trojans, spyware, and it's just not responsive enough (it's SLOW). Not with Linux! this is a whole different world people, no such thing as all that!.... I came across a video on youtube of someone displaying there desktop running Linux with all the desktop effects, along with a video he was playing a song by Lolly Jane Blue called worms. I was BLOWN away, with the eye candy and sound (the song is amazing). Anywho, I tapped into Linux. Scouring the Internet for anything, (distrowatch.com for short) learning Linux is like an English man learning to speak Spanish, it's hard, but somethings just come to you. I have made many connections with this new community, and along the way I have noticed that there is a war going on between our Operating Systems (OS). Microsoft is on top (Monolopy) Mac seems to invest more in there personal media (ipod) and, well just "I stuff". Linux is doing a lot, believe it or not there is a world out there that's pushing and driving for a "freedom". Linux is free, and there are thousands of programs/software that is free... yes free..Everything from internet to media. People are dusting off there old computers to turn them into linux based power houses. Now, I don't want to toot a horn and say "Everyone switch to Linux". There are some draw backs. Number One draw back from Linux is for the gamers. Companies like Bungie (Halo) have a lincense with Microsoft. Now Linux has tried to respond with a program called Wine to "emulate" windows execute files, (.exe) Not everything will work with Wine but there getting close, and thats not just with games but some of your favorite programs like adobe photoshop, again Linux respons with Gimp, a program just as powerful and smaller. Again it's just learning the different setup. Number two with Linux is Wifi, Maybe it's just my expierence with it. Linux supports an amizingly amount of old and new hardware. The last thing I wan't to leave you with is give it a try, and if you have a problem or want to ask a question on how you might go about doing something, just ask. Where? Linux support you might ask? Linux support is everywhere! try craigs list, any kind of forum, try linux.com, any website you can think of, search for linux, search linux forums. Shit e-mail me, I'll point you in the right direction, (jstimpert@gmal.com) One thing I really enjoy is how I can ask a question and get a direct answer! Linux we are not there yet! but I promise in 2008-2009 we will leave a mark. Some Linux operating systems to get your feet wet with are Ubuntu, and pclinuxos, try open suse, try mandrake. visit distrowatch.com scroll down to about half page, look right and see the Top linux distros that are being visited and downloaded. Thanks for reading and enjoy. Free me and watch what I do!

Secure your Wireless!

2007-10-10T23:15:00.001-04:00

Ok this is for all those people who have wireless and want to "SECURE" it. It's easy, just apply some time and effort. I have a Linksys router. You may have a Linksys or Belkin ect..Whatever your brand it's the same to set it up, well kinda, I'll explain..If you have a Linksys open IE or Firefox and in the address bar type 192.168.1.1 hit enter, (Belkin type 192.168.2.1) for other routers look in manual for setup. Now you will be prompted for a name and password, look on the bottom of your router for this info (or in the manual) it's something like admin and no password. First thing is to reset the name and password, for the password make sure to use some odd keys like !@#$%^&*() this (sometimes) confuses hacker programs into faulting. Now wireless, first create a SSID, then pick to not display it, for security pick WPA personal (to make a custom password) or you can just go with WEP (not as safe as WPA). You are now pretty safe! To further secure you wifi you will need your MAC address. In the wireless settings of the router select MAC address filtering, and add the mac addresses. Now you are even more secure!

New bad words

2007-10-08T10:51:00.000-04:00

So sweet, so innocent. Ahhhh the trouble free life of a 1 1/2 year old boy. My son runs around screaming phrases "aww dam" and " aww god". It is fun to hear him say bad words that he cannot quite pronounce yet, like the word shit, he says it more like "cheet" and bitch sounds more like "bets". Yeah, yeah I know its bad to teach these things to a kid, but hey he's in his mocking stage and it's going to happen. You cannot shield a kid from these things. I herd George Carlin say "kids don't learn that these words are bad until one day they say one and WHAM a smack in the head, when he says another out of the reaction to the pain WHAM" thats a tough way to learn. He just learned how to make the sound effect of a gun when he wants to shoot it, I can't wait to smack him when I hear "die bets die". AHHHH, the punishing I get to look forward to giving. (thats supposed to be funny, I don't plan to beat my kid people).